BIO

Born in Tennessee, Dublin-based artist Vanessa Jones received her BA in Fine Arts in 2003 from the George Washington University in Washington DC. In 2021, she completed her MFA at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin.

As a graduate, Vanessa was shortlisted for the RDS Art Prize in 2021 and received the R.C. Lewis-Crosby Award and the RDS Mason, Hayes & Curran LLP Centre Culturel Irlandais Residency Award. Her portraits have been shortlisted in the Zurich Portrait Prize at the National Gallery Ireland in 2020, 2021 and 2022 where her work was awarded Highly Commended in 2021. She has recently had her work included in Art Jakarta 2022; Mata Irlandia 2022 in the World Trade Centre, Jakarta; the OPW exhibition Person Presence Perception, Portlaoise; Páipéar at Hangtough Contemporary, Dublin; Prosopopoeia at Molesworth Gallery, Dublin; and Draíocht’s you breathe differently down here curated by Amanda Coogan, Blanchardstown. She was also the winner of the inaugural self-portrait Sequested Prize, 2021 based in London. Her work is in the OPW National Collection as well as private and corporate collections in both Ireland and abroad.

Vanessa is also one of the 2022 Next Generation Artists Awardees from the Arts Council Ireland and is currently a part-time lecturer in the Painting Department at NCAD.